The streets of Baltimore once again were closed for the business of normal commerce and opened for business of speed. American Le Mans and IndyCar dropped the green flag on racing for the 2013 Grand Prix of Baltimore over Labor Day weekend.

For American Le Mans the results show a continued runaway for the P1 class, the top prototype in the series. Muscle Milk – Pickett Racing with drivers Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr took the top spot in Baltimore adding to their more than double points lead coming in. The battle in P1 through the rest of the season falls to the second and third spots on the final podium.

P2 prototypes are set with a battle for the top spot between Level 5 and Extreme. The run for the top was given a shake as Guy Cosmo made a jump from Extreme to Level 5 before the Baltimore race, teaming with Scott Tucker and Marino Franchitti. Extreme responded by tapping Anthony Lazzaro to join Scott Sharp. Lazzaro has prior ALMS seat time and has been running in the soon to be combined Grand-Am series. With this driver lineup they rolled over the line in Baltimore with Tucker/Cosmo/Franchitti taking the win for Extreme while Sharp and Lazzaro were .120/second off the bumper. Three races remain and while Extreme Motorsports, on paper, wish Cosmo good will on his future it’s a sure bet they would like nothing more than to roll past Level 5 for the P2 Championship.

The remaining classes, PC, GT and GTC have good challenges remaining. The points separating the top 3 in each class have some room to fall back or move ahead so every race until the final lap is set to be a contest.

American Le Mans leaves Baltimore for the Circuit of the Americas in Texas to run in mid-September. Early October finds the ALMS turning laps at the Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway. That race, however, might be more applicable as the Oak Tree Memorial Grand Prix as the signature landmark at VIR showed its age and fell flat over earlier this year. The series closes at Road Atlanta for the Petit Le Mans in mid-October.

P1 may be a done deal but with the remaining classes having plenty to run for it is time to really start looking at American Le Mans for some fun sports car racing. With the news of combining the ALMS with Grand-Am moving forward to 2014 the honors of winning a class in this current and final incarnation of ALMS could be something special.

Of course, any driver will tell you that any win is special. The streets of Baltimore was hard fought with bits, bumpers and fenders of all kinds bent, broken and left behind. The track workers certainly had plenty to clean up and sweep away to get ready for IndyCar to run the next day.

American Le Mans is winding down its current incarnation so grab some laps while you can and go racing!